My Longkang

This story was told to me by a man in his fifties. He is a well-known man about town. There is a street in town named after his father. You wouldn’t expect to hear this story from a man like him. He is so down-to-earth and straight forward.

At the time of the story, he had just joined the civil service. He was posted to a town in the second division. Being new to town, they had no place to stay and they ( my friend and his three companions ) were alloted a government quarters which had long been abandoned.

When they first saw the place, it made a good impression. It was big and spacious. The place looked well maintained. However the area around it was covered with knee length grass. It was linked to an outside toilet by a staircase at the back of the quarters.

Upon entering the quarters they were pleasantly surprised. It was spotless. On the first night they moved in, my friend whom I shall call James here was very happy with his companions. They stayed up late to clean the place. He was tired and retired to his room early. He could hear his friends sweeping the place and washing the dishes.

On the second night, his friends were still cleaning the place till late at night. The sound irritated him and kept him from sleeping so he went out to tell them to leave it till the next day. Upon exiting the room, he saw nobody but the sound of the floor being swept persisted.

He exited through the back door to go to the toilet. When he came back, he peeped in through the window of his friends’ rooms. They were all fast asleep. He is a staunch Catholic and he spent the whole night saying his prayers.

The next morning he went to town to look for another place to stay and found an apartment above a shop. The rental was RM200 a month. Two of them were agreeable to move out with him but the third was reluctant to have another expense and decided to stay put.

They were still arguing about this matter as they walked back to the quarters. Before reaching the place however, they saw that the quarters was brightly lit. They hid behind a tree and continued to look at the quarters. After a while, they saw a lady peering out through the window combing her long hair. An intruder was their first thought.

As there were altogether four of them, they gathered their courage to question this intruder. Upon entry to the quarters they couldn’t see the lady any more. However they saw a broom moving to and fro sweeping the floor with no sign of any one holding the broom. The dishes were being washed by unseen hands.

They fled. This time the decision was unanimous. None stayed there that night. The next morning,they all went to the district office and made some complaint of wanting to move out because they were afraid of snakes in the tall grass. Then they were told that snakes might indeed be there because no one had stayed there for many, many years.

This couldn’t explain why the house was spotless. The district office sent some one to cut the grass. When they cut the grass, they found some tomb-stones in the gardens surrounding the quarters. Apparently the area around it had been a burial ground for a family.

They decided that the place was indeed haunted and quickly moved out their things before nightfall. The quarters according to James has been left vacant ever since although it is still well maintained as if it is occupied and it remains spotless inside.

They later found out the district office had indeed been aware of the rumours surrounding the place but assumed as the four of them were new to town, they were ignorant and would prove the rumours wrong. In the end, they proved the rumours right.